Wiseman’s influence on non-fiction cinema is impossible to overstate. Over the course of six decades, his work was primarily about exploring American institutions.
The world of cinema has lost another giant.
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Frederick Wiseman, the prolific documentary filmmaker and one of the greatest non-fiction directors, has died aged 96.
His death was announced in a joint statement from the Wiseman family and Zipporah Films.
“For nearly six decades, Frederick Wiseman created an unparalleled body of work, a sweeping cinematic record of contemporary social institutions and ordinary human experience primarily in the United States and France,” the statement read. “His films – from ‘Titicut Follies’ (1967) to his most recent work, ‘Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros’ (2023) – are celebrated for their complexity, narrative power and humanist gaze.”
From state hospitals for the criminally insane (Titicut Follies), welfare centres (Welfare), the Comédie Française (The Last Letter), dynamic US neighbourhoods (In Jackson Heights), to public libraries (Ex Libris: The New York Public Library) and farming communities (Monrovia, Indiana), Wiseman’s documentaries have shown his boundless interest in institutions and social systems, expansive canvases that tell grander stories about the contemporary human experience.
Driven by boundless curiosity and a lifelong commitment to naturalism, he never embraced terms like "observational" or "cinéma vétité" to describe his documentaries, which never featured conducted interviews or staged events. He used only natural lighting and diegetic sound, never did voiceovers, and called his films "Reality Fictions".
Wiseman received an honorary Oscar in 2016 as well as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Fest in 2014.
His 44th and final film, Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros, was released in 2023 and audaciously dealt with not one but two intertwined structures - the famed French restaurant, and the multigenerational dynasty of chefs that run it. A contemplative tour de force, it has – like many of his films - a truly life-affirming quality, and reminded audiences to what extent Wiseman was the grand master of documentary filmmaking.
The film featured in Euronews Culture’s Best Movies of 2023 and comfortably stands as one of the greatest food films of all time.
Euronews Culture had the pleasure of interviewing Wiseman in 2023, an interview in which he shared his love of French food, wanting to film in the White House (“But I’d never get permission!”), and how “part of the fun of making documentaries” was that it was “always an adventure and I always like to think I’ve learned something.”
When we asked the then-93-year-old filmmaker whether he still found shooting and editing films still enjoyable, he shared: “I've never found the making of the film, whether it's the shooting or the editing, a much of a strain. It's not that I don't get tired, because of course I get tired. But one of the things I like about making these kind of movies is that I'm totally immersed in the material. It's a great way to pass the time.”
Wiseman is survived by two sons, David and Eric, his three grandchildren, as well as Karen Konicek, his friend and collaborator, who worked with him for 45 years. His wife of 65 years, Zipporah Batshaw Wiseman, died in 2021.
RIP Frederick Wiseman 1930 - 2026
